Strict Enforcement Cuts Drunk Driving

March 29, 1985|By Sue Rusche.

He tends to use the phrase ``quite frankly`` often. It suits him well because that`s what he is--frank, firm, no-nonsense. Edward Emmett O`Farrell, 38, a judge from Tuscarawas County, Ohio, is making a difference in the problem of drunk driving.

``I felt the judicial and legal systems were frustrating the will of the people, expressed over and over again in state legislatures with the passage of one DUI (driving under the influence) law after another,`` he told a breakfast meeting of the Hermione Weil Alexander Fund Committee to Combat Drugged and Drunk Driving in Atlanta recently.

In 1981 O`Farrell ran for judge on a drunk-driving platform, was elected, took office in 1982 and began a revolution simply by enforcing the law.

As a result, folks don`t mix drinking with driving in Tuscarawas County much anymore. And the county, which had Ohio`s highest per capita DUI fatality rate when O`Farrell came to office, reduced DUI fatalities from 21 in 1981 to 5 last year.

The only DUI offender aged 18, 19 or 20 to commit a second offense told the judge, ``But you didn`t catch me behind the wheel of a car.`` He had been arrested on an interstate highway for walking under the influence!

How did O`Farrell do it, this father of three, soon to be four, who once studied to be a Jesuit priest, who drinks but never drinks and drives?

For a first DUI offense, judges under Ohio law may impose a minimum sentence of three days in an alcohol-education program to a maximum of six months in jail, a minimum fine of $150 to a maximum $1,000 and may suspend the offender`s license for a minimum of 60 days to a maximum of three years.

First offenders in O`Farrell`s court get 15 days in jail, a $750 fine and their drivers` licenses suspended for six months. If the offender can prove to the judge that he is unable to arrange alternate transportation to and from work (such as riding a bicycle, car-pooling, having a family member drive him, etc.) and if the DUI offense was not associated with an accident, O`Farrell issues an order that permits the offender to drive only to work and back while his license is suspended.

An offender gets a new license plate for his car, however, one with a yellow, rather than white, background that signifies that his license has been suspended for a DUI conviction. A yellow tag is all police need to stop the driver anytime to see if he has the judge`s order granting driving privileges, to make sure that he is not under the influence of alcohol or drugs and is on a direct route to or from work. (Another family member driving a yellow-tagged car has only to produce a valid driver`s license to be on his or her way.) The DUI offender trades in his yellow tag for the standard white one at the end of the suspension.

Young people aged 18, 19 or 20 may choose an alternate to the first-offense sentence that adults receive: They spend 3 rather than 15 days in jail and pay no fine, but must pay court costs. Their licenses are suspended just as adults` are, with the same conditions and provisions for driving privileges and yellow tags.

But the young offender also must attend a three-day residential alcohol education program, must undergo a court-enforced 60-day curfew from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. and must do 50 hours of community service picking up trash along the county`s roads and highways, which provides an opportunity to marvel over how much of it is empty alcohol containers. The trash must be brought to court, where the judge inspects it before the offender can dump it in the county`s landfill.

The offender also must work in a hospital emergency room from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. one Friday and Saturday night, must tour the county morgue and must either witness an autopsy being performed or view a slide show of one. Finally, he must write for Judge O`Farrell a 1,000 word essay, which is due at the end of the 60-day curfew.

By patiently finding ways to enforce the law and make it stick, Judge O`Farrell is getting results in Tuscarawas County that people all over the country are clamoring for.

Q--I would like a referral, or a source of referral, for a local psychiatrist who specializes in patients who are addicted to cocaine. My son has been through a clinic and now wants to see a doctor on a 1-to-1 basis. He works and does very well at his job; so he would make appointments when he is not at work. Please help us. He wants this assistance and does not mind the intervention.

A--Here are three suggestions:

-- Ask the clinic where your son was treated for the names of psychiatrists to whom they refer patients.

-- Check with your county and state medical associations for names of psychiatrists who specialize in drug addiction.